Another neighbor housed in their own historic downtown - The Platte Valley Brewery - will come to Grand Island on Sept. 12 (tomorrow!) to share their beers with patrons of Craft Brew & Sausage Fest to help raise funds for the restoration and enhancement of Grand Island's Liederkranz downtown. 

Though the Platte Valley Brewery has been around for a decade and a half, current owner John Lowe purchased it in February, he said. The Platte Valley has been two different breweries in the past, and Lowe is currently brewing off premises. 

The outside looks scruffier than the inside, which is actually very nicely appointed with plenty of natural light, natural woods, brass, and overstuffed chairs - not very normal for a bar in a college town. Plus, there is a nice beer garden where Cornhole (AKA Bag-Toss or Bag-O) games are often played. 

As a brewpub, Platte Valley aims to provide a beer for all tastes. That being said, even those who do not care for craft brew tend to enjoy Lowe's S.O.P. (South Of the Platte), which is a Mexican Lager much like a Corona or Dos XX. Lowe's Red Rock Wheat is very smooth with a little sweetness tucked in. Even his Oatmeal Stout is not over powering to the taste. During the summer months Platte Valley offer light fruit beer, this summer it is an Apricot Blonde. The brewery's Adams Pale Ale, Belgium Pale Ale and One More Hop IPA make the craft beer enthusiasts happy. 

Platte Valley also offers good foods, including fan-favorite pizzas. 

Location:
14 E Railroad St., Kearney, Nebraska, 68847-5452

Call:
(308) 237-0751

Established in the early 1990s, Empyrean Brewing Co. has been brewing craft beers in Nebraska long before the current so-called Craft Beer Explosion, and we are honored to feature their beers at the inaugural Craft Beer & Sausage Fest tomorrow (Sept. 12).
Like many brewers, Rich Chapin started out as a home brewer, and when Lazlo's Brewery and Grill was founded in 1990, he began to convert his award-winning  recipes for the restaurant, according to WikiPedia. The grand opening of the brewpub took place on March 20, 1991, at 710 P St. in Lincoln's historic Haymarket District. 
Construction was completed on a new fermentation cellar in the adjacent Coffee and Spice Building at 729 Q St. in 1997, when Empyrean Brewing Company and Lazlo's Brewery and Grill became separate financial entities. Just one year after contracting with the distributors, Empyrean had over 70 draft contracts in Lincoln and Omaha. To meet these needs, brewing capacity was increased to 2,500 barrels.  And it didn't take long for the brewers to turn to bottling in order to keep up with demand. In 1999 Empyrean became the first Nebraska craft brewery to bottle its beers, starting with their LunaSea ESB, Third Stone Brown and Chaco Canyon Honey Gold. 
More of their history can be read HERE, but they aren't the only one who has grown: The Lincoln Haymarket has grown around the brewery since its founding. 
Today, Lincoln's Haymarket serves as an example of how to reinvigorate a historic part of city and the benefits of doing so. The Craft Brew & Sausage Fest has similar aspirations, with the goal that a reinvigorated Liederkranz could be a crucial element of a revitalized Downtown Grand Island. 
Come sample some of their beers tomorrow and help us in this goal. 

Benson Brewery, another of Omaha's great brewers, will join the Liederkranz this Saturday (Sept. 12) at the Craft Brew & Sausage Fest to help the historic landmark raise funds for its preservation, restoration and enhancement. 
Benson Brewery is a turn of the century-meets-modern restaurant and brewery specializing in artisan food and house beers.
Opened in 2013, Benson Brewery quickly became one of Omaha's more prominent breweries, aided, no doubt, by their ambiance and location. Owner Ryan Miller opened Benson Brewery inside a turn-of-the-century movie house at 6059 Maple Street, in the heart of Benson. We, at the brew fest, applaud this reuse of a historic property. 
If you haven't been to Benson, it is a booming and revitalized neighborhood, something Grand Island is trying to do with it's own downtown, of which a restored Liederkranz could play a vital role. 
In addition to its  reclaimed flooring and beams along with modern lighting and a great bar to saddle up to, Benson Brewery also offers a one-of-kind urban beer garden, "The Hop Box," that is adorned with comfortable mixtures of new and old in keeping with the brew pub's theme. 
Like everything else in the bar, the locally-sourced food is inspired by old and new American traditions. For instance, the brew-pub offers classics like Bangers-n-Mash with modern flair like the Tofu Sandwich. And, according to the Omaha World Herald, Head Chef David Meegan is always serving up beautiful presentations with his tasting recipes. The Brewery will be bringing some of their Turkey Legs to the Craft Brew & Sausage Fest for those interested in something besides sausage. 
The brewing operation is enclosed in glass, running constantly between the brewery and a walk-in cooler out back.  In keeping with the theme, new and innovative brewing techniques are on the horizon as well with clay pots and barrels at the ready to try new recipes and flavors.
Current offerings include: The Fix, Hop Box Pale Ale, Brewers Duet, Karha-T, Benson Blonde, Out of Town Brown, [Aum]-OM-Aha IPA, Waves of Wheat, Crimson & Clover and Rebelicious IP.


Phone: (402) 934-8668
Email: info@bensonbrewery.com

Hours
Monday-Thursday 11-10
Friday-Saturday 11-11
(Saturday Kitchen Closed 3-4)
Sunday 11-9

One of Mid-Nebraska's most prominent breweries - The Thunderhead Brewing Co. - will come from Kearney's historic downtown to join neighboring Grand Island at the Sept. 12 Craft Brew & Sausage Fest, an event aimed at preserving one of the latter's own historic landmarks in its downtown.
Though Thunderhead's pizza-serving pub was opening in 2000 in Kearney's historic downtown, the brewing operation was founded two years earlier by Trevor Schaben, his wife Jenny and his parents Pam and Henry, according to the Kearney Hub. 
Thunderhead has grown pretty dramatically since then, starting out with the equivalent of a one-barrel brewing system which has since been upgraded to their current system of 30 barrels that necessitated a 2011 relocation of brewing operations to Axtell, NE. 
Thunderhead also started canning 2006 with their Golden Frau, according to CornNation's Ty Peteranetz. Since then, the brewery has added Cornstalker Dark Wheat, Cropduster IPA, Leatherhead Red, Schaben's Pilsner, and Prairie Peach, among others, to their year-round line-up. 
Like most of the brewers appearing at the Craft Brew & Sausage Fest, brewing beer started out as a hobby for Schaben. 
“I wanted to start my own business, and making beer seemed like a viable option,” Schaben told The Hub. “In the Air Force, I had a flying job for a few years. Most of the world had a variety of awesome beer. At the time, Kearney didn’t have a brewery. It was a hole in the market. We basically had to make our own market.”
Thunderhead's beers can be found all over Grand Island. Look for their distinctive artwork on their cans in supermarkets, or on tap over at the Chicken Coop, a restaurant in Grand Island's downtown. But if you want to sample them and talk with some of their staff, head over to the Craft Brew & Sausage Fest Saturday - by doing so, you'll be supporting a good cause too!

Thunderhead Brewing Company
18 East 21st Street
Kearney, Nebraska
(308) 237-1558

If any brewer appearing at the Sept. 12 Craft Brew & Sausage Fest can appreciate the value of historic preservation and a revitalized downtown's role in a city's vitality it is Omaha's Brickway Brewery & Distillery.
Located at 1116 Jackson St., Brewer Zac Triemert told the Omaha World Herald that his brewery/distillery's name is derived from the brick that surrounds their location in Omaha's thriving historic Old Market. All of the product goes out the brewery’s brick-surrounded back door of the location to the back alley.
Brickway, formerly Borgata Brewery, has many homages to history. It's interior features no shortage of references to Omaha's pre- and post-Prohibition brewing history. In fact, Triemert  attempted to re-create the brew crafted by Omaha’s historic Jetter Brewing Company, which opened in 1887. Though Triemert told The Wold Herald that the Jetter family no longer has the original recipe for their beer, he said he had an idea of what the older beers would have tasted like, so he crafted something that he thought was a pretty close likeness.
Triemert owns the brewery/distillery, but was also a founded at Lucky Bucket (the beers of which will also be featured at the Craft Brew & Sausage Fest) where he was head brewer.
The Craft Brew & Sausage Fest shares many of the same ideals and aspirations as Brickway when it comes to historic preservation and the importance of a thriving downtown. The whole purpose of the brew fest is to raise funds for the Liederkranz, one of Grand Island's most important historic landmarks that literally formed the cornerstone of the city's founding and development of its downtown center.

CONTACT:
(402) 933-2613
HOURS:
Monday-Thursday: 4:00pm-Close
Friday: 12:00pm-2:00am
Saturday: 11:00am-2:00am
Sunday: 11:00am-Close

Grand Island residents and its neighbors who frequent Omaha can get a small taste of what the big city has to offer when the Farnam House Brewing Company's hand crafted beer appears at the Sept. 12 Craft Brew & Sausage Fest.

Starting out as home brewers, Tony Thomas and Phil Doerr spent years honing their craft. Thomas worked both at home and in commercial breweries and Doerr in his “barage”, founding the South Omaha Brewers Homebrew club. The two's passion for brewing took them all over the world, traveling to Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic and to over half of the local states.

After doing the research and with a little guidance and advice, they decided that it could be more than a hobby, and took the plunge that many brewers at the Craft Brew & Sausage Fest are about to take or just recently took: They decided to open a brewery.

Today, Thomas and Doerr brew their beer in the basement of their brewpub on Farnam Street in what used to be the vault for Crandell Furs. You can still see the original safe doors on your way into the brewery. They aim to maintain a regular line up of farmhouse ales, German Lager, Bock, Stout, and sours, along with some special Brett beers, some barrel-aged, sours, local hard ciders and many others.

FARNAM HOUSE BREWING COMPANY
LOCATION: 3558 Farnam St., 402-850-6372
HOURS: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, closed Sunday
MORE INFO: 402-401-6086

Somethings compliment each other perfectly, such as an outdoor event (the Craft Brew & Sausage Fest) in a beautiful courtyard during September, arguably Nebraska's most comfortable month, or the simultaneous consumption of pizza and beer (offered by the Loop Brewing Co.).
The latter of which was a simple idea that brought Adam Siegfried's pizza and Tyler Sue and her husband Tyler Loop's craft beers to join forces in 2011 to open Loop Brewing Co.
But in many ways, Loop Brewing Co. and its participation in the Sept. 12 Craft Brew & Sausage Fest is itself a great pairing, because both share a passion for historic preservation.
Loop Brewing Co. took on the monumental task of housing its brewery in McCook's historic railroad icehouse, which once brought the finest ice to that town and her residents as early as the 1900s.
The same ice was also used to keep perishables and great tasting beer cold to and from Chicago. There is some nice symmetry to its history and that it again houses home-crafted beers. This rustic and unique structure sits only a couple of feet away from an active railway.
"We don't have an exact date that it was built," Loops told the McCook Gazette.  "But it's approximately 100 years old... It's been a warehouse since the mid-1980s."
In the same vein, the Craft Brew and Sausage Fest's entire goal is about preserving the Grand Island Liederkranz, a German social club whose building literally formed the cornerstone of the city's founding and development of its downtown center.
The Craft Brew & Sausage Fest couldn't be happier to have a participant like the Loop Brewing Company, with its own stewardship of an vital historic building. Check them both out on Sept. 12 in Downtown Grand Island.
Loop Brewing Co. makes a range of great beers, including a Pale Ale, an IPA, an Irish Red Ale, a Brown Ale, a Cask Ale, a Porter, a Stout and seasonal brews, a couple of which will be available for sampling at the Grand Island Liederkranz on Sept. 12.

Loop Brewing Company
404 West A Street
McCook, NE 69001
308.345.5198
loopbrewingcompany@yahoo.com
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The world of craft beers and breweries is one predicated upon creation. A brewer is always creating beers, tweaking ingredients, planning new things. But it is especially exciting when a brewer opens a new brewery offering something unique.
Sandhills Brewing Co., in Taylor Nebraska is currently constructing a brand-new 20-barrel brewery complex that will not only be pumping out gallons of tasting beverages, but also offering visitors a Sandhills destination, replete with cabins. And it will all be just a couple hours away from Grand Island, where they will appear at the Sept. 12 Craft Brew & Sausage Fest.
While they are aiming for a fall open for Bootleg Brewers, brewing isn't anything new to Sandhills Brewing Co., the beginnings of which were sprouted in 1978 when Ron Worm's father-in-law included him in a home-brew session. They affectionately called their beer Musketeer Beer, because it was so musky it brought tears to their eyes.
Worm wore many different hats over the years, from ranching and working as a foreman on the railroad, to cutting the first live tree out of the Halsey forest, and then on to owning his own sawmill, kiln, and more, but he never lost his passion for brewing. As brewing ingredients became more readily available, his hobby grew, and in 2001 Worm decided to brew a batch of all-grain beer with a friend in his wife Dodie’s kitchen, using his five-gallon buckets in which he had drilled holes  They were pleasantly surprised with the resulting brew.
Soon, with the brewing help of a few friends, Worm created an all-grain home brew system in the basement of their home, using common household items. From that hard work, the brew "Cling On" was born, which got its name because of the large amount of grains required to make this tasty brew that also increases the ABV to about seven percent.
"Easy drinking and high in alcohol can sneak up on you and before you know it you are looking for something or someone to 'Cling On' to," explains the brewer's website. "Sorry Star Trek fans, no relation here."
As Worm's concoction attracted more visitors, in 2001 he decided to start his own brew club called Bootleg Brewers. The fall of 2015 will mark an achievement of having his very own brewery, one with cabins allowing visitors to stay a couple days and enjoy the Sandhills.
Before then, though, you can catch them and their crew at the Craft Brew & Sausage Fest on Sept. 12. They were very enthusiastic about being there, and we are thrilled to have them.